When a phone device such as a mobile phone is in a person's handbag or pocket, input may be accidentally provided to the phone device. The accidental input may initiate an unintended placement of a phone call by the phone device. Such unintended placement of a phone call, which is commonly referred to as “pocket dialing” or “pocket calling,” may inconvenience and/or annoy a recipient of the phone call. Moreover, the user of the phone device that placed the unintended phone call may be inconvenienced or embarrassed by the phone call. Sometimes, the recipient of the phone call may overhear whatever is happening in the vicinity of the user, which may compromise the privacy of the user.
Mobile phones have been equipped with features that help prevent pocket dialing. For example, many mobile phones provide a phone lock feature. A user of a mobile phone having a phone lock feature may manually lock the mobile phone. While locked, the keyboard or touch screen of the mobile phone will not respond to dialing input. The user must first manually unlock the mobile phone before dialing to place a phone call. Unfortunately, a user may not always remember to lock the mobile phone before placing the mobile phone in a pocket, handbag, or other position that is susceptible to unintended dialing.
As another example, certain mobile phones have been equipped with a call confirmation feature. Each time a user of a mobile phone equipped with a call confirmation feature dials to place a phone call, the mobile phone will prompt the user to provide additional input to manually confirm that the dialing is intended. This extra confirmation step may be inconvenient or annoying to some users and may introduce unnecessary delay to the dialing and placement of intended phone calls.